Are Trump and Putin Cooking Up a New Reset?

Summary: Over the past two weeks, contacts between Presidents Trump and Putin have accelerated dramatically. Putin is trying to make common cause with the United States to deal with a deadly enemy, but is such a reset possible?

Over the past two weeks, contacts between Presidents Trump and Putin have accelerated dramatically. As was the case with the 9/11 attacks and ISIS, Putin is trying to make common cause with the United States to deal with a deadly enemy: in this case, the coronavirus.

But is such a reset possible, given the accumulation of grievances and mistrust on both sides? Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, has explored the historical antecedents of Putin’s recent gambit. For his part, Eugene Rumer, the director of Carnegie’s Washington-based Russia Eurasia Program, has written that it’s premature to expect that the coronavirus will force the Kremlin to play nice or trigger a fundamental re-think of the policies that have contributed to the dangerous stand-off with the United States.

Please join Carnegie experts Eugene Rumer and Dmitri Trenin for a conversation from Washington and Moscow about the possibility of a transformed U.S.-Russian relationship in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. Moderated by Andrew S. Weiss.

Eugene Rumer

Eugene Rumer is a senior fellow and the director of Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program.

Dmitri Trenin

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, has been with the center since its inception.

Andrew S. Weiss

Andrew S. Weiss is the James Family Chair and vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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About the Russia and Eurasia Program

The Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Program has, since the end of the Cold War, led the field of Eurasian security, including strategic nuclear weapons and nonproliferation, development, economic and social issues, governance, and the rule of law.